Over the past few months there have been a number of significant incidents involving the unauthorized disclosure of personal information. These incidents have involved several public organizations, including the Public Health Laboratory, the Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission, Memorial University and most recently the Eastern School District. This has obviously raised concerns with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) and, as such, we believe it is useful to assure the public that our office is actively engaged in these types of issues and is taking steps to protect your personal information and to help ensure that public bodies collect, use and disclose personal information only in strict accordance with the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the "ATIPPA").

The ATIPPA includes a number of provisions (Part IV of the Act) which limit the extent and means by which public bodies can collect personal information as well as the extent to which they can use and disclose that information. In fact, one of the purposes of the legislation is to make public bodies more accountable and to protect personal privacy by "preventing the unauthorized collection, use or disclosure of personal information�" These public bodies include government departments and agencies, health care bodies, educational bodies, cities and municipalities. Part IV of the ATIPPA came into effect on January 16, 2008 and, as a result, all of these public organizations which collect, use or disclose personal information are now subject to the privacy protection provisions of the legislation.

With respect to the ongoing privacy issues referenced above, the OIPC has been specifically asked by the Department of Health and Community Services and the Eastern School District to conduct investigations into the Public Health Laboratory incident and the recent theft of a laptop containing the personal information of several thousand schoolchildren. While we acknowledge the investigation of the RNC, the focus of our investigations will be on the policies and procedures, or possible lack thereof, relating to personal information handling practices of the public bodies involved. We are very pleased with the initiative of these two organizations in engaging our office and we look forward to their full cooperation in determining what went wrong, what changes are necessary and what needs to be done to prevent future occurrences. We anticipate that our investigations will lead to full and comprehensive reports, to be released to the public as soon as they are completed. In the meantime, if any member of the public has a specific or general concern with respect to the protection of personal information we encourage you to contact our office to file a complaint, comment on a particular practice or program or to simply seek guidance and/or information. You may contact the OIPC by telephone at 729-6309 or toll-free at 1-877-729-6309.

The OIPC is an independent Office of the House of Assembly tasked with overseeing the ATIPPA. It is the mission of this office to protect and promote the privacy rights of all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. In so doing, this office will accept and investigate complaints from citizens of this Province relating to the collection, use or disclosure of personal information by a public body. The OIPC has a broad range of responsibilities and powers and may make recommendations to ensure compliance with the provisions of the ATIPPA. As an independent office we report to the House of Assembly and ultimately to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. For more information on our office and on the ATIPPA please visit our website at www.oipc.gov.nl.ca.

In addition to the information available through the OIPC, please refer to the website of our Federal counterpart, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, at www.privcom.gc.ca/index_e.asp. This website contains a wealth of information on various privacy related issues such as identity theft, social networking and tips for protecting your privacy.

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Media contact:
Ed Ring
Information and Privacy Commissioner
709-729-6309